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CLASSICISM
'Introduction' Classicism and classic are terms used in several different and at times overlapping senses. A “literary classic” is a work considered excellent of its kind, and therefore standard, fit to be used as a model or imitated. More narrowly, “classicism” may be taken to denote the deliberate imitation of the works of antiquity, and in this sense is often qualified as “Neo-classicism”, which flourished in England in the late 17th and 18th cents. Neo‐classicism, in literature, is the habit of imitating the great authors of antiquity as a matter of aesthetic principle. Medieval writers had often used classical works for models, but Petrarch in the 14th cent. was the first to do so because he considered it the only way to produce great literature. The epic, eclogue, elegy, ode, satire, tragedy, comedy, and epigram of ancient times all found imitators, first in Latin, then in the vernaculars. At the beginning of the 16th cent. the recovery of the previously neglected Poetics' ''of Aristotle provoked an attempt to establish rules for the use of the ancient genres. The ''Poetics itself was repeatedly edited, translated, and supplied with commentaries, notably by Castelvetro (1570), and a number of treatises on poetry appeared, culminating in J. C. Scaliger's controversial Poëtice (1561). These theoreticians imprisoned imitation within a rigid framework of rules. The most famous of their inventions was the observance of the dramatic unities of time, place, and action, which won great support in France in the 1620s where a new generation was eager to attract a more educated public. A noisy battle over Corneille's popular tragi‐comedy Le Cid (1637), which was blamed for breaking the rules, ended in an acceptance of the unities, and during the next 30 years a succession of critics, the best‐known of whom was Boileau, extended the scope of their prescriptions from drama to all other major genres. Up to the last quarter of the 17th cent. neoclassicism had little influence in England and, except for Jonson, no important writer paid strict attention to the rules. But at that point playwrights responded to the urgings of Rymer and began to take neo‐classical theories more seriously. Dryden produced All for Love' ''(1677) and Addison his ''Cato (1713), which has been called the only correct neo‐classical tragedy in English; but the fashion was not to last. The usual excuse for the rules was that they helped writers to be true to nature. Pope wrote: ‘Those RULES of old discover'd not devis'd, | Are Nature still, but Nature methodiz'd’, and implicit in his view was the assumption that ‘nature’ consisted in what was generally true. What undermined neo‐classicism most decisively in the 18th cent. was the changing view of the goal of literary creation provoked by Boileau's translation (1674) of the pseudo‐Longinian treatise of the sublime. A cult of sublimity replaced the wish to produce a just representation of general reality, and the way to Romanticism lay open. 'Significant Figures' Homer (7th C. BC.) Greek poet. Homer is considered to be the author of the the Iliad and the Odyssey, the great early epics of Greek literature. Nothing factual is known about Homer; he is supposed to have been blind and lived in Ionia. Literary scholarship revealed that the Homeric poems are a synthesis of oral, bardic stories. The Iliad relates the siege of Troy and Achilles in the Trojan War. The Odyssey tells of the post-war wanderings of Odysseus on his way back to Penelope in Ithaca. Virgil (70-19 BC.) Roman poet. Virgil gained a high literary reputation in Rome with the Eclogues (42–37 BC) and the Georgics (37–30 BC), a pastoral but instructive work on farming and country life. His greatest work was the Aeneid, which established him as an epic poet. It relates the adventures of the Trojan hero Aeneas, and echoes the themes of Homer's Odyssey and Iliad. Unfinished at his death, it was published at the command of Emperor Augustus. Cicero'1st C. BC. He was Roman, a successful lawyer, interested in philosophy, the best orator in the republic, a strong supporter of Roman Republic. He was labeled as the enemy of the state by Marc Anthony and Caesar Octavian after Julius Caesar was murdered. 'Pierre Corneille 17th C. T.S. Eliot 19th- 20th C. Euripides 4th C. BC. Jean Racine 17th C. 'Representative Works' [Aeneid] It follows the travels of Aeneas, the Trojan prince, after the fall of Troy. Aeneid epitomizes Augustan patriotism and imperialism. The epic recites the story of the original family, founders of Rome, and it predicts Rome's greatness. Virgil in his epic follows the Homeric models of Iliad and Odyssey. In its retelling of the mythic story, it pays tribute to many important political figures of the day. It is recognized for its narrative form. In creating a shifting narrative from the objective to the subjective.Virgil is said to have refined narrative conventions. [Andromaque] It is Jean Racine's first major work. The play served as a direct competition to Pierre Corneille's play El Cid. It draws on classical characters and themes: Rome, war, heroes, fallen empires. It centers on the afte of Andromaque, the widow of Hector, whom Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles ( a major Greek hero in the Trojan war), is holding captive. It is dominated by passion, preferring the dominance of reason over passion. 'Characteristics' Superiority of Balance and Rationality over impulse and emotion Affirmation of Formal precision and Order and eschews ambiguity and flight of imagination or lack of resolution. Wholeness and Unity Restraint limited scope Reason 'Classicism in Popular Culture' Do we see any significant references to this movement in todays culture, especially popular culture? Can you think of any movies, series, songs, advertisements,etc, that reminds you of this school? 'Interesting Webpages on Classicism' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_Literature http://www.echeat.com/essay.php?t=28489 http://mural.uv.es/roromar/classicihist.html http://www.indiastudychannel.com/resources/131423-Classicism-Literature.aspx